Join us on Thursday, December 1, 2005 at 7 p.m. for a lecture prepared especially for YIVO by the renowned psychologist and cognitive scientist, Steven Pinker, author of six books including The Blank Slate (Penguin, 2003), a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in non-fiction.

The lecture will be moderated by Noah Feldman, Professor of Law at New York University School of Law, author most recently of Divided by God: America's Church-State Problem and What We should Do About It (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2005).

A recently widely publicized study claims that Ashkenazi Jews have been biologically selected for high intelligence and tend to suffer genetic diseases as a by-product. Steven Pinker will discuss this claim in the context of current debates on nature, nurture, intelligence and race.

To read the unpublished study that started the recent debate, "Natural History of Ashkenazi Intelligence" by Gregory Cochran, Jason Hardy, Henry Harpending click here

DATE:

December 1, 2005

TIME:

7 p.m.

VENUE:

YIVO Institute for Jewish Research at the Center for Jewish History 15 West 16th Street, NYC between Fifth and Sixth Avenues